The idea of playing hockey for money came into the game at a much later date. Championships were to be a best of two series with one home game for each team.
The idea of Mass culture is generally associated with the low because it is a market generated culture surviving only because of profit margins in big business as we have seen with companies such as the American powerhouse companies Nike and Coke. One could argue this is true for hockey on a whole but it does not fit well with the sports pinnacle the Stanley cup. Mass culture is often associated with the low when analyzing culture because of its commodity production. Low culture is described as being bodily or physical at the base and because of this hockey as a sport easily falls into this category. The game it was rewarding was very carnivalesque and physical the men who played it were of such a high standing in society you could not argue the cup was intended to reward a low cultural activity. Violence was associated with the game and perceived to be a major part of it, also solidifying the label of being low culture. Players were as much the offenders as the spectators. Fans were often so close to the game that players and referees had to be weary when passing on the edge of the ice from fear of physical interference from a pissed off fan. The curious fact about the paying spectator at these events is that they would pay upwards of a days wage to be close to the action during a playoff game. The crowds that first adorned the sidelines of these early games made up the who's who of Canadian society.
The Stanley cup grew with Canadians as the game of hockey did. The social standing of the trophy would have to be place in the high cultural standing. The sport of hockey was played as recreation by young middle and upper class male WASPS although anyone could play if they had the talent and was socially acceptable. The manner in which this trophy has been treated over the years can only be described as pitiful and contradictory to its aristocratic origins.